A common narrative among the AI-hating devs.
They claim that using AI tools like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot is a crutch that will ultimately “rot” your brain.
That relying on AI to write code will lead to a generation of programmers who can’t think for themselves.
But this perspective is misguided and fundamentally misunderstands the real value of a programmer in today’s world.
It’s like saying Intellisense makes you ignorant of basic APIs. Or a making the same case against classic StackOverflow copy-and-paste.
The truth is AI doesn’t diminish our mental faculties; it frees us to operate at a higher, more creative level.
A vast amount of programming work isn’t about groundbreaking innovation—it’s about repetition.
How many times has an authentication screen been built?
How many search functionalities or “Create, Read, Update, Delete” (CRUD) cycles have been coded from scratch?
These are the low-level, predictable tasks that make up the bulk of many projects. They are essential but rarely require deep, creative problem-solving. AI is exceptionally good at handling these predictable, boilerplate tasks, allowing developers to skip the tedious work and focus on what truly matters.
The real value and creativity in software development don’t come from writing another for-loop or manually crafting a function to validate an email address.
Instead, they come from the higher-level architectural decisions and the conceptual design of a system.
A developer’s mind is truly engaged when they’re figuring out how different components will interact, how to optimize a system for scale, or how to design an intuitive user experience. This is where innovation happens.
AI and vibe coding elevate you to this level, handling the grunt work so you can dedicate your mental energy to solving the bigger, more complex problems.
Means vs end
And yes coding can be a rewarding and mentally stimulating hobby — but for most solo developers and large organizations it’s just a means to an end.
People aren’t coding for the sole purpose of “developing their brains.”
They’re coding to build a product, launch a business, or bring an innovative idea to life.
For a devpreneur with a groundbreaking app idea, the goal is to build the app, not to spend weeks manually writing low-level code that an AI could generate in seconds.
Similarly for a company, the goal is to ship a product, not to maximize the number of lines of code its engineers write by hand. If a tool can drastically accelerate this process and help them achieve their goals faster, why wouldn’t they use it?
Fear
The “AI rots your brain” argument often stems from a place of fear—the fear that AI will replace developers.
Many of the developers who fear AI are simply afraid of losing their value and getting replaced.
So they tell themselves it’s just hype and everything will be fine. They cling to the idea that their manual labor is the source of their worth.
But the truth is, the most valuable work is the kind that AI frees us up to do — whether it even has anything to do with coding or not. Whether it makes money or not.
Ultimately the goal is to build things that matter and have a fulfilling existence.
AI is a powerful tool that helps us do just that, faster and more effectively. It frees us from the mundane and allows us to focus on the truly creative and impactful aspects of software development. It doesn’t kill your coding brain; it just changes what you use your brain for. And that’s a good thing.